Cardinal v. cardinal in debate on Catholic divorcees

Cardinal Raymond Burke has voiced a clear disagreement with Cardinal Walter Kasper’s proposal for a new approach to allow Communion for Catholics who are divorced and remarried.

Appearing on the EWTN TV broadcast of “The World Over,” Cardinal Burke told host Raymond Arroyo that Cardinal Kasper’s proposal, introduced at a February consistory of the world’s cardinals, would seem to conflict with established Catholic doctrine and canon law.

“In my estimation as a canonist I do not think it is possible,” said Cardinal Burke, who is the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s top canonical tribunal. He added: “I trust in coming days… the error of his approach will become ever clearer."

Cardinal Burke pointed out that Cardinal Kasper’s address was delivered to the cardinals during a meeting at which discussions were originally intended to be confidential. But since the thrust of the German cardinal’s proposal had become widely known, he said, he felt obligated to report that Cardinal Kasper’s ideas had met with some resistance among the cardinals.